Struggling

I often ask myself, "Why do some people have it so easy?" Then I realize those people don't know what hard work is. Unfortunately, when you are struggling with something you still want to have things come easily. Something I have always struggled with is weight. For those of you that know me, you have seen me go up and down over my lifetime and it is a constant roller coaster. This is one of the things have always struggled with but am determined to get a handle on for my family - specifically for my little girl. I don't want her to see her Momma gorging on bad foods, not exercising, etc. Unfortunately I am failing right now. I was able to drop a lot of weight and keep it off for a year after Libby was born but then I said I was going to take a "break" from dieting. Now, a year later, I am back up to where I was when I got pregnant with Libby and feeling, honestly, like a failure. I got comfortable which was something I vowed never to do again. So, here we go again my friends, I am going to try to stick with it this time and find a way to actually make this work in my life versus making it be such a battle. That's the hard part - trying to find a balance to make this work in every day life. Because, lets face it, the holidays are coming up. I am not going to be "perfect" the entire time - I may eat a piece of pie...but what I have always lacked is self control to only get small portions of things to balance it out. So my goal this go around in my latest weight battle is to do better portions and not completely eliminate the goodies I want. Instead, have little tastes of them when I crave them. It's all about balance.

Wordless Wednesday

10.30.09 Pumpkin Carving-Painting (10)
Originally uploaded by Holly Mroczkowski.

Play-doh Fun

My child is nuts about play-doh. I thought 2 year olds couldn’t have a long attention span. Apparently they can when there is play-doh involved. On Sunday, Libby played with it for 2 hours straight. She’d play with me and then switch to Jim and then back to me. It was wonderful. We made all kinds of things with it: suns with rays, a snowman, banana, hot dog, duck, etc. Nothing was boring to her. She just loves it and even asks for it in the morning. We got a tub with 3 1lb tubs of red, blue, and yellow. She’ll cycle between the colors. We won’t let her play with all 3 at once because lets face it. If we did that, we would only have one thing left of it because she’d mix them all together. Luckily for now she is very happy with one color at a time.

A not so happy halloween

I had big plans for Halloween this year. Libby was going to go trick-or-treating for the first time. We finally had a neighborhood where she could walk around. It was all planned out. So when I woke up yesterday I was completely excited and then I looked at the clock. 8:30 am?! How is it that late? For those of you that don't know, our child never sleeps in. Never. The latest she has ever slept is 8:15am and that is when she was sick. So I immediately thought something was wrong and went to check on her. She was fine...just sleeping in. I thought, "hey! whats the harm!? I can get a head start on things downstairs." So I left her alone until 9:15 when she was still sleeping. You would think all of this extra sleep on Halloween would be great, right? Extra sleep means no crankiness AND she can stay up later to trick-or-treat. WRONG! I took her to Target to run off some energy and she ended up throwing 3 major, throw herself on the floor fits. Moms did the classic look at me saying how they felt my pain and had been there. But I haven't! She's never done this before in a store...at least not to this degree. So home we went where I thought I'd get some food in her and down for a late nap. WRONG again! She wouldn't nap...just screamed. and screamed. and screamed. So eventually we went to get her and she never did nap. The crankiness continued and then got worse. So by 6:00 we knew she would never make it walking around the neighborhood. No halloween for her. =( Luckily she did get to go to Boo at the Zoo and trick or treated at her daycare. So there was that...and she was the cutest puppy ever!

Ready for Christmas

Yes, I know it is early but I am ready for Christmas. Most years, I am excited about it but really do not get into it. I don’t know if it is due to finally having a child old enough to really participate this year, having a new home I am just utterly peaceful in, or the combination of both but I am so ready for Christmas. I’m so ready to decorate the house with lights (something we typically don’t do a lot of). I’ve already warned my wonderful hubby that he is going to need to get on a ladder this year to put some up. Sadly the stores haven’t started putting out decorations so I cannot even plan our decorations out yet. Yes, I am one of ‘those’ people but with a new house I have no idea what to do!! I am even trying to start holiday traditions like baking cookies, decorating the tree on a certain day, etc. My goal is to make sure Libby has a fantastic Christmas and enjoys every minute of it. We are so blessed this year. I want to soak up every minute of family and joy from this time of year.

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Thanksgiving

With us having a house that can accommodate family and holiday traditions, I have volunteered to host Thanksgiving for the Ski side this year. Sadly, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!! Luckily my mother-in-law is going to help me not mess up the turkey. =) I can handle sides, pies, etc…but that turkey! Eeks!! I am clueless. Can’t I just buy one made up so I don’t mess it up? Or make a lasagna or pizza or something? That I won’t screw up…but a turkey. Man. Good thing I have a few weeks to figure it all out and family that can help. =)
What kind of things do you make for Thanksgiving or do you stick to the traditional bird? Any tips so I don’t blacken the thing? =)

Winter Activities

With cold weather right around the corner and snow too (?), Jim and I are plotting ways to keep the Liberator from going insane inside this winter. Last night we spent our weekly “date night” at Toys-R-Us looking for things to accomplish this task. You might think going to a toy store isn’t a fun way to spend the evening but it really can be! There are so many options and different kinds of toys! Our goal was not to get stuffed toys (her crib is full of them) but things like scissors, drums (cause we’re crazy), maracas, play-doh, etc., for her to use. We did really well too! Jim did find one toy that wasn’t on our “list” – a stuffed Ernie*.

In any case, I am sure I will be posting more about how these go over this winter and whether we actually survive it…but for now we are going to spend as much time outside as possible before winter actually hits!

* I know I said we weren’t going to get any stuffed toys but Libby loves Ernie right now and it was just too cute to pass up. I had the pleasure of giving her the toy and she freaked out (in a good way) when she saw it.